‘Splash Sisters’ lead No. 16 WVU women’s basketball to Big 12 Tournament semifinal in ‘gutty’ win

Last year, it was Kansas State who knocked West Virginia women’s basketball out of the Big 12 Tournament in a close game that came down to the wire.

So it was only right that on Friday afternoon, No. 16 WVU was able to repay the favor as they rallied from a large first-half deficit against No 20 Kansas State to take a late-game lead and edge out the fifth-seeded Wildcats in the final seconds of play to secure a 73-69 win in their opening contest at the 2025 Big 12 Tournament.

With the win, the four-seed Mountaineers secured their spot in the semifinal round of the conference tournament – they will play the winner of this afternoon’s ongoing game between first-seeded No. 8 TCU and ninth-seeded Colorado. After the game, WVU Head Coach Mark Kellogg discussed how the theme of the game for his team was “weathering the storm.”

“That’s what I wrote on the board after the first quarter – weather, weather, weather,” Kellogg said after the game. “That was a gutty one, we had to do lots of good stuff on both ends.”

WVU was paced by dynamic ‘Splash Sisters’ duo Jordan Harrison and JJ Quinerly, who make up one of the most dangerous backcourt combinations in college basketball. Reminiscent on their best scoring days of the Steph Curry-Klay Thompson duo from Golden State’s peak dynastic run in the NBA.

The pair can score from just about anywhere on the court – whether it be a layup resulting from the team’s numerous forced turnovers, a deep-range three-point bucket, or a trip to the charity stripe after drawing a foul off dribble penetration, the two senior guards know how to rack up the points.

Quinerly paced her team and all scorers in the game with a massive 24 point effort. Over her last three games, she has scored 93 points – a 31 point per game average. She was joined in her offensive efficiency on Thursday by Harrison, who chipped in an impressive 19 point game – more impressive was Harrison in the final 20 minutes of play, which is where she scored 17-of-her-19 points tallied.

The pair’s effort kept the Mountaineers alive in the closely fought contest where Kansas State was lights out from the field, shooting 52% overall and 44% from behind-the-arc.

“We needed the offensive scoring,” Kellogg said.